of a Local Flora. 425 



British Botany, and on the number of Floras lately published, 

 descriptive of the vegetable productions of the British islands. 

 While the general Floras have been thus increased in number, and 

 additional species have been yearly added to the lists of our native 

 plants enumerated in thein, the department of local botany has been 

 by no means neglected. Perhaps, indeed, we might say of this de- 

 partment, that it has been advanced in more than an equal degree ; 

 our local descriptive catalogues having rapidly multiplied during the 

 present century, and the published localities of the less common spe- 

 cies of plants having been doubled or trebled in the same space 

 of time. The writing of these appears to be still proceeding briskly 

 enough; and being at once an easy task, and an agreeable employment 

 to botanists, whose professional ties limit their range of observation 

 to one small circuit, the public is likely to continue to receive the be- 

 nefit of their exertions. But taking such works on the broad ground 

 of public usefulness, or their applicability to the general purposes of 

 science, we have to lament that the authors of them usually con- 

 trive to reduce this to its minimum of amount, by contracting the 

 circulation of their books, through the ridiculously high prices at 

 which they are published. We do not intend to say that the books 

 themselves are at all overcharged, looking to the very limited de- 

 mand which can be anticipated for such works ; indeed, we feel 

 assured, that the greater number of works of this kind, produce 

 only a pecuniary loss to their authors. What we do condemn, is 

 the expensive form in which the local Floras are written. Half-a- 

 crown, we think, is a very fair price for a local Flora, and we can 

 scarcely conceive a case in which it would be really necessary to 

 double this sum. The authors, however, contrive to swell their 

 works to a size that cannot be sold under four or six times this 

 amount ; and many of them are then published with a certain loss. 

 This addition to the bulk of the books is too often made up only of 

 long descriptions of species, with references to figures and to other 

 works, all of which may be found done equally well, if not better, 

 in the general Floras ; and from which, in two out of every three 

 cases, they are merely transcribed with the pen, or cut out Avhole- 

 sale with the scissors. In the hope of inducing local botanists to 

 render their exertions more available to science, we shall throw out 

 some hints upon the objects and construction of local Floras and ca- 

 talogues ; and in doing this, we shall take it for granted, that the au- 

 thors are really desirous to convey information to the public, and to 

 make their works serviceable to others. So very moderate an amount 

 of original talent is imperatively required for constructing a local 



